Live Review: Apocalyptica - Rock City, Nottingham
4th October 2024
Support: The Raven Age
Words & Photos: Tom Atkin
First band gracing the stage tonight is The Raven Age, the alt/groove metallers hailing from our fine capital and featuring a spawn of the great Steve Harris. They have a lot to live up to.
For a band that only has three albums, they have been around for a fair amount of time, this aside, their live performance is absolutely dialled in. The vocal mix of Matt James and Matt Cox fits the sound of the rest of the band perfectly. Sharing the guitar work we have George Harris and Tommy Gentry, this combination is fluid, and you can tell they enjoy playing together.
Playing mostly songs off their latest release 'Blood Omen' really highlights the music that they are bringing to the scene. This is the second album that they have released in their current form and honestly, seeing them on stage together and hearing the albums, this is the line up for them. That’s not to say they were bad at all before, but the chemistry just seems right now.
As I have said about a few different support acts lately, I can see them playing their own headline shows very soon. The melodic side of their songs pulls you in, and the metal side of their music just hits the spot right. 10/10 Great performance. Will definitely recommend!
Now it's time for Apocalyptica, if you have never heard of these guys before I feel sorry for you. Metallica, On Cellos. How can that be bad?
The crowd tonight shows how varied aan audience they pull in. Opening the set in classic Metallica fashion with 'The Ecstasy Of Gold'. Even though I know this isn’t Metallica, this gives me chills still. Hammering straight into 'Ride The Lightning', and despite being covers you know exactly what the song is, Eicca Toppinen and his fellow cellists put a fair amount of their own touch on it. Giving it that extra bit of flair that playing it on strings can cause.
This tour is in support of their latest album 'Plays Metallica, Vol2' hence all the songs tonight are off that album, however, this album spans across the history of Metallica. We get treated to all the classics, 'Enter Sandman', 'Creeping Death' and even a somewhat controversial classic 'St Anger'.
At this point, the whole crowd seems in awe at the skills on show tonight, yes there is some extremely fast metal guitar players, but seeing songs that have no doubt shaped most of the crowd played on cello with more speed and just as much passion it just really hits.
Continuing on, 'Sad But True', 'Battery' and 'Master Of Puppets' ring out throughout Rock City. Even though there is no singer in Apocalyptica, the crowd are providing all the vocals that are needed as they are singing the lines to every song, in time with the lead cello which acts as the “voice” of Apocalyptica. 'Nothing Else Matters' being a personal favourite Metallica song was an absolute gem to hear. This just adds a whole new layer to an already beautiful song.
Ending the night with arguably one of the biggest Metallica songs, 'One', played with a spoken word version of the lyrics over the top, vocalized by non other than James Hetfield himself is the icing on the cake of an already amazing performance. The energy through out was astounding.
All in, this was a very different kind of metal tonight, and one that I can safely say everyone adored.
Photo Credit: Tom Atkin
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